PEEBLES PROFILES
EPISODE III: Leutnant Werner Voss
Werner Voss, Germany’s fourth ranking ace, was born on April 13, 1897 in Krefeld, Germany..
On November 15, 1914, Voss joined the Westphalian Hussaren (Cavalry) Regiment Number 11. At the time he was just seventeen years of age. The 11th Hussars were stationed on the Eastern Front, and within three months, Voss was promoted to Gefreiter and awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd Class.
By May 1915, Voss held the rank of Unteroffizer, but he was tired of the misery and the mud associated with the cavalry. He volunteered for flight school in August 1915. At that time, the air wing of the Imperial German Army was often seen as an extension of the cavalry, so this was more or less a natural move on Voss’s part.
He trained with Flieger Ersatz Abteilung Number 7 at Köln (Cologne). After completing training, he became an instructor with FEA7 until February 1916.
On March 2, 1916, Voss was promoted to Vizefeldwebel and assigned to Kampsgeschwader 4 and the 20th Kampfstaffel.
Originally Voss flew as an observer… but on May 28, 1916, he finally received his pilot’s badge,. On September 9, 1916, Voss was commissioned as a Leutnant.
While Voss proved to be an excellent pilot, he was not happy flying in two-seat observation planes, so he requested a transfer to Jagdstaffel in the hopes of becoming a fighter pilot. He was temporarily assigned to Jasta 2 (Boelke) on November 21, 1916. He quickly impressed his fellow fighter pilots, and his first confirmed kill came just five days after joining the Jasta! It was in a Nieuport 17 Scout plane.
To prove this was no fluke, Voss went up a second time that day and shot down an F.E.2b! He was quickly transferred to the Jasta 2 on a permanent basis. While with Jasta 2, Voss managed to shoot down an impressive 28 enemy aircraft, making him the third ranking ace for that particular Jasta at war’s end.
It was here that Manfred von Richthofen (the famous Red Baron) and Voss first crossed paths. Von Richthofen was impressed with the young flyer, and on numerous occasions, he admitted that Voss was his chief competitor.
Upon von Richthofen’s promotion to Oberleutnant, Voss was transferred from Jasta 2 to the newly formed Jagdgeschwader 1. JG1 was the formation of an elite German fighter squadron, which consisted of four Jastas: 4, 6, 10, and 11.
Voss remained with Jasta 2 until May 20, 1917, earning a total of 28 victories and the coveted Pour Le Mérite. He then was made acting commander of Jasta 5 where he earned an additional six kills. Soon he was made commander of Jasta 29 for approximately five days… before being transferred to command Jasta 14.
In the meantime, von Richthofen was lobbying to have Voss transferred to the Flying Circus. Von Richthofen got his wish, and Voss was transferred to Jasta 10, where he would eventually become commander and score fourteen more victories before his destiny with B flight of Number 56 Squadron.
THE LAST DOGFIGHT: September 23, 1917 during the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge
A lone silver Dreidecker stalked the evening sky. Below him, a flight of unsuspecting British fighters supporting a reconnaissance mission. Patiently he waited for just the right moment. As the mission wore on, two British S.E.5s became separated. The pilot was just two kills short of his fiftieth victory. Few pilots would consider tackling two enemy aircraft alone, but Werner Voss was no ordinary pilot! He liked the odds, and like a hungry leopard, his Dreidecker pounced on his would be prey with deadly precision, forcing the two British S.E.5s to the ground.
Suddenly and without warning, the predator became the prey, as seven S.E.5s dropped down upon the unsuspecting ace from nowhere. Hopelessly outnumbered it seemed like the only choices were to turn and run or fight to the bitter end.
As flight leader James McCudden put it:
“We were just on the point of engaging six Albatros Scouts away to our right, when we saw ahead of us, just above Poelcapelle, an S.E. half spinning down closely pursued by a silvery blue triplane at very closed range. The S.E. certainly looked very unhappy, so we changed our minds about attacking the six V-strutters, and went to the rescue of the unfortunate S.E”.
Perhaps Voss was unaware of the odds. Perhaps the enemy had him so well surrounded that he was unable to put the superior climbing ability of the Fokker Dreidecker to use. For whatever reason, Voss chose to fight and he couldn’t have picked a more dangerous group to fight. His opponents were not just any British pilots. This was B Flight of 56 Squadron. All seven of the pilots were aces.
For the next ten minutes, Voss would fly circles around his adversaries as he emptied his Spandaus and managed to pepper every enemy plane with bullet holes. In the meantime, his enemy tried in vain to bring down this most noble opponent, but the silver-blue triplane was simply too agile, and Voss was too talented a flyer for the British.
Suddenly Voss’s airplane went into a shallow dive, its propeller no longer turning! The Dreidecker had been flying for almost 90 minutes (the limit of its fuel endurance) so the young Voss may have run out of fuel. Or perhaps the fuel tank had been punctured, and Voss was forced to shut off the engine to prevent the plane from catching fire. Perhaps, after ten minutes of fighting, Voss had run out of ammunition and was attempting to surrender. Or maybe Voss had been wounded and could no longer control the plane and was attempting to surrender.
No one knows for sure…
As the Dreidecker banked into the shallow turn, Voss made the fatal error of crossing the path of Arthur Rhys Davids:
“Eventually I got east and slightly above the triplane and made for it, getting in a whole Lewis drum and a corresponding number of Vickers into him. He made no attempt to turn, until I was so close to him I was certain we would collide. He passed my right-hand wing by inches and went down.”
Voss’s Dreidecker then went into steep uncontrolled dive, which flight leader James McCudden later described:
“I shall never forget my admiration for that German pilot, who single-handedly fought seven of us for ten minutes. I saw him go into a fairly steep dive, and so I continued to watch… and then saw the triplane hit the ground and disappear into a thousand fragments, for it seemed to me that it literally went into powder.”
The dogfight would become one of the best known aerial battles of World War I. It would also end the streak of the Red Baron’s closest rival. Voss’s plane crashed in “no man’s land” with the battle still raging in the area. Unlike von Richthofen, Voss would receive no funeral with full military honors. He was quickly buried, and the remains of his Dreidecker were shipped back to England for analysis.
His death marked the end of an era, the end of the “lone wolf” pilots. He was credited with 48 kills.
Voss was only twenty years old…